A 1975 match now on You Tube between Leon Fortuna and Johnny Naylor shows Kent Walton presenting the trophy to the winner-Naylor. Was this the only time or one of the few times the viewers got to see Walton rather than just listen to his commentary?
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Many of the French TV matches now available start with the commentator talking to camera
Kent presenting a belt would have been more meaningful to us fans than most other people.
Kent was probably as high profile as any other sports commentator of the 1960s, we did mostly see the others, via interviews etc, I still think it was for viewers to seethe man behind the voice.
Kent Walton was the voice of wrestling. He was very good at building a specific persona around the different wrestlers of the day.
If on TV it could have been to give the watching TV audience a face to match to the voice .
Would any other sport have to rely on the commentator to present the belt/trophy?
I think that I am right in saying that he presented Billy Howes with his belt when he defeated Jaques Leget in 1962.
He also did a piece to camera at the start of the tournament celebrating 25 years of ITV's wrestling coverage in 1980.
We got to see Kent interviewing Giant Haystacks in the ring in 1981 as part of the build-up to his Wembley date with Shirley.